Day 4597

It was a slow day. The big event of the day was giving Dawn a bath. She likes to roll around in the grass in the back yard and gets dirty incredibly quickly. It was a good time for a bath since we had just cleaned all the bedding on her favorite bed. Like most dogs, Dawn isn't fond of getting a bath, although she always seems to feel better after the ordeal is over. We gave up on bathing our dogs at home years ago and use one of those self-bathing places. It is much easier to bathe a large dog on one of those large raised tubs. After a bath and a nail trim, Dawn is good for another month. Sometimes I wish I only needed one bath a month. I've grown to hate getting wet

The day started as usual with a sunrise walk with Dawn. It was nice this morning. The humidity was low and there was a gentle breeze. It was so pleasant outside that I thought seriously about taking a walk in the park instead of going to the gym. That didn't last long. When I went outside to check on the weather after breakfast, it was already too hot. In just one hour the temperature had already gone up over six degrees.

Before going to the gym I wrote a NASA contact with some questions about the upcoming Artemis-1 launch. I was amazed that I got an answer later the same day. Although the trip is still over a month away, it seems like I will be leaving soon. I'm not a spontaneous traveler and it takes me a while to get ready. The trip to Titusville should be a piece of cake by now since I've been there many times before. Nope. I still fret about what cameras and clothes to take and wonder how everything will fit in a small carry on bag. I'm not a great traveler.

I went to the gym as soon as it opened. There wasn't much else to do. I still wonder why the gym parking lot is always full when there are typically very few people on the gym floor. There must be something else going on that I don't know about. I know they have classes in another nearby building. The cars could belong to employees, but I seldom see over five employees when I'm there. I guess I could ask someone. That's not my style though. I'll just wonder about this for years.

I thought about practicing with the star tracker this afternoon. There is already a new version of the iPhone app available. I ended up doing nothing. I'm already starting to tire of experimenting with this thing and wonder if I will ever put it to good use. I've had the tracker for many months and so far I have only taken one decent picture of the night sky. It's a useful tool to have around though. As long as the tracker is still under development, it always gives me something to do on a slow day.

Janet and I may go visit the rescue Dalmatians again tomorrow. The kennel is closing soon and we will be moving the dog to a new location. We're still not sure if we'll be able to play with the dogs regularly at the new place, so we wanted to see everyone again before the move. The rest of the day will be just like today. There will definitely be a sunrise walk with Dawn and a trip to the gym.

Puppies are today's Dalmatians of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4572

Another uneventful day. I think it's impossible for me to get eight hours of sleep. When I go to bed earlier, I wake up earlier. Somewhere between six and seven hours is all my body seems to want. It's too bad that Dawn wasn't in the mood to walk when I took her outside this morning. It was really nice out just before sunrise. She's not going to walk until Janet returns though. I'm lucky that I can get her to go down to the meadow behind our house to do her business.

I took my long walk right after breakfast to avoid the heat. Apparently, I'm not the only one trying to avoid the heat. The park is surprisingly crowded early in the day this summer. I often see neighbors walking their dogs while I'm in the park. Today one of them was one dog short. It turned out that the dog had died of cancer recently. It's sad that our dogs are with us for such a short time.

I went to the bank this morning and then stopped at a nearby grocery store to get some more salad greens. Actually I just got a couple of pre-made salads so I wouldn't have to make anything. I'm spoiled that Janet makes me a nice salad every day. On my own, I would revert to eating tuna fish out of the can pretty quickly.

The Benro folks wanted me to run a test on my star tracker and sent me some pre-release software to install. I was a little apprehensive because there was a good chance that everything would stop working again. Boredom makes you take chances though. I figured that if the beta firmware didn't work, they would fix the problem later. I carefully followed the instructions I was sent and was pleasantly surprised that the tracker still worked. There weren't any camera disconnect problems either. Maybe my problems are over for a while. Actually, I'm pretty lucky to be communicating well with the manufacturer in China. They always answer my questions within a day or two and have been pretty responsive. A lot of people on the user group haven't even received their trackers yet. One of these days I'll have some really nice astro photos to show you. It might be a while though. Lord knows when I'm going to be able to get back to the observatory.

I finally contacted the right person at NASA and got an update on my Artemis-1 status. Yes, they received my application for press credentials a long time ago. No, they haven't made any final decisions yet. I hope I get selected but it would certainly save me a lot of money if my application is rejected. I don't think airfares and hotel rates are going down any time soon.

I found Dawn sitting in the corner again this afternoon. Some noise that I hadn't even heard had spooked her. She came when I called and we went outside to sit in the sun for a while. Dawn is fine, but she is still very nervous without Janet at her side. We get all the essential things done during the day, but I can tell that she is sad and a little depressed. At least she doesn't run away when I take a nap on the bed anymore. I took a long nap this afternoon and Dawn stayed right there with me. We are definitely building trust, but there is a big gap between trust and joy. I tell Dawn that her friend will be returning soon, but I'm not sure she understands.

It's grocery day again tomorrow. This week really went quickly. I don't need much since I got some of my shopping done today, but I do need strawberries. Janet returns on Sunday. I think Dawn will be very happy.

Bentley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 4459

It's hard to believe it might snow tomorrow. Today was beautiful. It's difficult to beat 70 degree temperatures, blue skies, and very little wind. Dawn must have agreed because she seemed eager to take her walk this morning. I'm seeing signs of Spring everywhere. I guess tomorrow we'll see what Winter still has to offer.

I haven't completely given up on doing website design using an old system on an external hard drive. I copied the rest of the files I need from the server this morning and I'll give this a try and see how it goes. It's certainly not very critical how I update websites these days. I only work on two: my own and the one for Dalmatian Rescue.

It must have been a really slow day because I got out the star tracker again and began experimenting with it. I upgraded the firmware for the third time and installed the latest app on my phone. It's counterintuitive how this thing works and I usually end up with the camera pointing backwards when I'm trying to track something. Since I've only been using the unit during the day so far the only targets I practice with are the sun and the moon. The sun is too bright to be pointing a camera at on a day like this, but the moon worked perfectly. I really need to try this at night sometime, but I'm going to wait until it's a little warmer. I actually think the Polaris tracker works quite well. The software continues to improve with each new version. Most of the many errors I've encountered have been caused by me and the lack of an instruction manual. I still think this saga would make an interesting story for Sky & Telescope, but the editors don't appear to be interested.

I've really got to think of a better way to spend my day than taking long walks and complaining about my feet. The foot pain was quite noticeable today, but I was able to complete my entire route. Walking seems so much better than sitting around the house or watching television. It's worth the discomfort. Walking is a pretty mindless activity, but there are lots of things to see and looking at my surrounding always gets me thinking. No deep thoughts, but I do like to daydream.

I'm still doing my best to win Dawn's trust. I don't want her to be scared or depressed when Janet goes on vacation. So far we're still working on the basics. She'll come when I call sometimes now, but not always. When she's real hungry she'll watch me fix her dinner, but usually she waits in the bedroom until I'm finished fixing things and go back to the office. Then she'll come out to the kitchen and eat.  She'll share the bed with me now when Janet is away from the house. That's an improvement. A month ago she would always go out to the kitchen when I came in the bedroom. We've never had a dog that didn't like men before. You have to be very patient.

I'm a lazy person but I miss working. Working gave my day the structure it needed. It would be nice to have some interesting writing or website projects again. Not very likely though. All my old clients have either retired or died. I can't relate to the young people who replaced them at all. For the most part, young people just irritate me. If this sounds like the definition of a grumpy old man, it probably is. I'm hanging in there though. The week's trash has been taken out to the curb and I'm ready for whatever Friday brings.

Ely is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day